A Moment for Reflection
By Fr. Terence Bateman OFM Conv
The Heart’s Journey toward God Wisdom from St. Bonaventure
St. Bonaventure, whose feast Day we celebrated just recently, invites us to see the Christian life not merely as a path of obedience, but as a sacred journey – a pilgrimage of the soul returning to the Heart…
Peace Through the Wounds: The Gift of the Risen Christ
Christ’s heart, opened on the cross, is the doorway to His peace. On the cross, we see the full depth of divine love. A love that does not retaliate when wronged. A love that forgives in the face…
Have Mercy on me, O Lord and Heal my Soul, for I have Sinned
St. Francis genuinely embraced this poverty of spirit as a deep orientation in his soul, which enabled him to recognise simultaneously his own broken and wounded self and the dignity of his identity as a beloved child of…
May The Dawn From On High Break Upon Us This Christmas
“In the shadows and silence of that holy night, a great and inextinguishable light shone forth for every person; the great hope that brings happiness entered into the world: ‘the Word was made flesh and we saw his…
The Divine Indwelling
Within the depth of the self, even and especially in our hidden self, we encounter God. It is within this hidden self, the self that is denied or suppressed where the Lord seeks to meet us. In the…
Easter Joy and Resurrection Grace
No matter how empty or dark we may feel inside, when we cry out for grace, God reaches down into the graves we dig for ourselves, pulls us out and restores life to us. Walking through the friary…
The divine light shines in and through all creation
I represent our friary in our local parish Care for the Earth group, and was asked to give a talk from a Franciscan perspective. My main point was that we need to have a holistic understanding of our…
Victoire Larmenier: “The holy nun from France who started Naz”
Victoire Larmenier, or Mother St. Basil, as I first came to know of her when a child at Nazareth House in Johannesburg, was known to us children as “the holy nun from France who started Naz”. As children…
A woman of practical love and courageous faith
Both derided and esteemed, Martha of Bethany is an interesting figure in the gospels who has much to teach us. Derided because she is so busy with practical concerns that she has no time to sit with Jesus…
Catholic identity and Catholic plurality (ii)
We continue with our reflections from the last time. I realise that these are a rather challenging read, but hopefully it will be worth it. Following on from our previous thoughts, the conflict that arises from trying to…
Catholic identity and Catholic plurality (i)
The last half-century or more has seen notable shifts in societies, cultures, and the church. Many people are deeply disturbed by these changes, and their insecurities and anxieties have increased as these changes have themselves led to cultural…
Looking to the Future with Joyful Hope from Within the Challenges of the Present
Most of our awareness and thinking takes place within a framework determined by the immediate concerns of the present and is shaped by our ongoing reaction to these concerns. While this is in itself good and helps us…